Jazz breaking news: Steve Reid Ensemble Set For Jazz Café and Café Oto Shows
Monday, November 9, 2009
Cult free jazz drummer Steve Reid (left) is set for two UK club dates this week switching to the Jazz Café in London's Camden tonight and later this week in a special one-off featuring DJ Gilles Peterson at Dalston’s Café Oto.
The shows come just as a rare session from the 1970s is set to come back into circulation. The much sought after Mustevic album Odyssey Of The Oblong Square Reid recorded at the height of the loft jazz scene movement in 1977 is to be reissued on the London-based Soul Jazz label. The artwork for the album is also featured in new book Freedom Rhythm and Sound.
Originally taped for radio the session with alto saxophonists Charles Tyler and Arthur Blythe, trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah, bassist David Wertman and percussionist Mohommad Abdallah says Steve was “completely free, with no rehearsal – just freedom.” The other highly collectable albums from the period, Rhythmatism and Nova, both already reissued by Soul Jazz differ in their basic conception, he says, from Odyssey.
“The other two were based on tune concepts and we ran the tunes round the rhythm and with Odyssey we left everything to be free. There was no rehearsal for that whatsoever and the guys just made beautiful harmonies and we were playing as one. You rarely see that nowadays and there were a lot of egos in that room but everybody kept their egos down and we were able to make great music.”
Reid will release new album In The Rhythms featuring formidable Paolo Conte tune 'Sparring Partner' recorded live at Joe’s Pub in New York next year on Soul Jazz.
– Stephen Graham
To book for tonight’s show go to www.jazzcafelive.com and for Thursday’s show go to www.cafeoto.co.uk